Scientific American

Astronomers Detect Smallish Exoplanet's Infrared Glow

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:40:08 EST

Here’s a hot topic: astronomers have detected infrared radiation from a faraway planet not much bigger than our own.

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Zeppelin Searches for California Meteorite

Tue, 08 May 2012 09:15:08 EST

Gold Country is now meteorite country. On May 3rd scientists inspected the northern California countryside from the air for fragments of the so-called Sutter’s Mill meteorite . The minivan-size space rock streaked through the atmosphere over the West Coast on April 22nd. Witnesses saw a visible trail in the sky in daylight.

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Earth Was Longtime Asteroid Punching Bag

Tue, 01 May 2012 17:07:08 EST

An asteroid impact is widely blamed for killing off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. An asteroid 10 kilometers wide struck the Yucatan peninsula and left a giant crater. It also tossed up enough debris to catastrophically darken the sky and cool the Earth.

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Gamma-Ray Bursts Found Innocent in Ray Case

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:20:08 EST

Earth is under siege from outer space! In a way. We get peppered by speedy particles, called cosmic rays, all the time. Some come from the sun, some from supernovas and some via solar-style winds emanating from far-off massive stars. Anything that can accelerate a proton to nearly light speed does the trick.

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Ballooning Star Split Planet in Two

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:39:08 EST

In about five billion years, Earth is going into the broiler. The sun will swell up into a red giant, engulfing us and the other inner planets . And that'll be that.

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Space Shuttles Head for Final Destinations

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:32:08 EST

“And nose gear touchdown, and the end of a historic journey. And to the ship that has led the way time and time again, we say farewell, Discovery. ” In 2011 space shuttle Discovery completed its final mission. But it still has one more trip to make.

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Supernova Turned Star Inside-Out

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:26:08 EST

It’s a blast from the not-too-distant past.

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Martian Water Stuck in Minerals

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:12:08 EST

Mars today is pretty dry. But billions of years ago, water flowed across the Red Planet. It ran in rivers that carved deep valleys. And it may have even filled a Martian ocean inside what today look like the remains of ancient shorelines.

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Mars Makes Movie Execs See Red

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:36:08 EST

“We open on a lone soldier walking through the desert. The year: 1861. The place: Mars!”

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"Man in the Moon" Facing Factors Figured

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:52:08 EST

Why is the far side of the moon on, well, the far side of the moon?

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Dark Matter Clump Furrows Brows

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:53:08 EST

Dark matter. It’s hard to see, it’s hard to study and it just won’t behave. There’s plenty dark matter around. It’s just that no one knows what it is. It only makes its presence felt through its gravitational pull.

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Mars May Still Be Quaking

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 19:00:08 EST

What's shaking on Mars? A new study suggests that tremors may have rattled the Red Planet just millions of years ago. These earthquakes, well, Marsquakes, could even be ongoing today. That would mean that Mars is not geologically dead, as is usually assumed.

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John Glenn Orbited 50 Years Ago Today

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:48:08 EST

“This is Friendship 7 . Have beautiful view of the African Coast.”

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Black Hole May Eat Asteroids

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:30:08 EST

At the center of our Milky Way galaxy is a supermassive black hole. It weighs as much as four million suns. The black hole is hefty, but it's pretty tranquil most of the time.

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Flame Dances on Board Space Station

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:08 EST

Starting a fire on the International Space Station might not sound like such a good idea.

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Kepler Finds Multiple Exoplanets around Single Stars

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:52:08 EST

Two decades ago, the only known planetary system started at Mercury and ended at Pluto.

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Point Up and Click

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:15:08 EST

Seems like everyone's a photographer these days. Digital technology has put high-caliber photo equipment is in the hands of countless amateur enthusiasts. But astrophotography remains a bit more specialized. It takes a unique skill set and the right equipment to produce a stunning image of another planet or even another galaxy.

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Binary Stars Have Plenty of Planets

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:19:08 EST

Several planets in our solar system have multiple moons. But in other planetary systems the orbital dance can get far more compelling. Astronomers are finding that some faraway worlds orbit multiple suns.

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GRAIL Mission May Find a Former Second Moon

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:00:08 EST

Did Earth once have two moons? It may take two lunar spacecraft to find out.

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Leap Seconds May Disappear

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:27:08 EST

Welcome to 2012--a leap year. The additional day in a leap year keeps the calendar in sync with the seasons. They're needed because Earth rotates more like 365-and-a-quarter times in one lap around the sun.

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